Best short-term car insurance

Temporary car insurance durations

You can arrange temp car cover insurance from as little as an hour to as long as 30 days, offering a flexible solution that can be tailored to your needs. Typical options include:

• Hourly insurance, which can be ideal if you need to drive someone else’s car in an emergency.
• Daily car insurance is suitable if you need cover for a day or two, such as if you’re borrowing a van to move house.
• Weekly car insurance, perhaps if you’re borrowing a friend’s car for a holiday to avoid the expense of car hire.

You’ll be able to arrange variations of any of the above to suit your requirements, and in many cases will be able to extend the length of cover for an additional fee. You can choose when you want the cover to start and can generally secure same-day cover too, with the best short-term car insurance providers offering a quote within minutes and instant cover thereafter.

Types of temporary car insurance

Most temp car cover insurance is offered on a fully comprehensive basis, which covers both you and the car in the event of an accident or theft of the vehicle. Some providers will offer third party, fire and theft policies, or just third-party cover, but this is less common. You can find out more about different policy types in our car insurance guide.

What does temp car insurance cover?

When you’re ready to compare short-term car insurance, you’ll need to make sure you’re getting the right level of cover for your needs. Typically speaking, a comprehensive short-term car insurance policy will include the following:

• Theft or damage to the vehicle (e.g. fire, malicious or accidental damage)
• Damage to someone else’s vehicle or property
• Legal liability cover
• European cover
• Roadside recovery/breakdown assistance
• Key cover and windscreen damage
• If you needed to make a claim, the no-claims bonus on your main policy would be protected, as would the vehicle owner’s.

Bear in mind that all insurers will vary in terms of the specifics of the policy. For example, while some will include fully comprehensive European cover as standard, for others it’ll come as an optional extra. Similarly, breakdown assistance will be offered in some policies but not all, so it’s important to compare temp car insurance thoroughly so you know you’re getting the cover that’s right for you.

What isn’t covered?

Typical policy exclusions are:

• General wear and tear of the vehicle
• Tyre damage
• Unnamed drivers or vehicles
• Theft or damage as a result of negligence, e.g. keys left in the ignition or valuables in view
• Using the car for hire and reward or other business purposes

Make sure to read the policy wording carefully so you know exactly what’s covered, and what isn’t.

Lowering temp car insurance costs

The cost of temp car cover insurance will depend on a range of factors, including:

• Your personal details, including your age (policies are typically available to anyone between the ages of 17 and 75, but the younger you are, the higher the premiums are likely to be) and location.
• Your driving and claims history. You’ll normally be expected to have no more than nine penalty points on your licence, and the more you have the higher the premiums. Similarly, any recent insurance claims or driving disqualifications/convictions can have an impact on the cost, and may mean you’re rejected altogether.
• The type and value of vehicle you’re looking to insure, together with its insurance group.
• Your cover requirements, including how long you want to be insured for and why, estimated mileage, and the level of voluntary excess.

In order to reduce costs, you may want to try increasing the voluntary excess (provided it would still be beneficial to make a claim), and thinking carefully about how long you’ll need cover for. For example, if you think you’ll need cover for longer than a few hours, it may be cheaper to opt for a daily policy than extending the hourly rate. Similarly, if a house move might overrun, it’ll be cheaper to take out cover for two days at the outset rather than adding another day to the policy later on.

Yet one of the best ways to reduce the cost of premiums is to thoroughly compare temp car insurance to make sure you’re getting the best deal. Use our chart of featured providers to start your search today.